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Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2016: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition GT2016 June 13 – 17, 2016, Seoul, South Korea GT2016-57857 Review of Coal-To-Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) Production Methods and Modeling of SNG Production in an Entrained-Flow Gasifer Xijia Lu* and Ting Wang Energy Conversion& Conservation Center University of New Orleans New Orleans, LA 70148, USA Abstract In this paper, the coal-to-synthetic natural gas (SNG) 1 Introduction technologies have been reviewed. Steam-oxygen gasification, SNG has a large potential market, particularly for countries hydrogasification, and catalytic steam gasification are the three that don't have domestic natural gas (NG) resources and relies major gasification processes used in coal-to-SNG production. on importing expensive foreign Liquefied Nature Gas (LNG). So far, only the steam-oxygen gasification process is Basically any application that currently uses natural gas could commercially proven by installing a catalytic methanation use SNG. In particular, gasification can be used on-site for reactor downstream of the gasification process after syngas is industrial applications to produce SNG, allowing continued produced, cleaned, and shifted to achieve an appropriate H2/CO operation of natural gas equipment, but from a coal source. ratio for methanation reaction. This process is expensive, less Other than producing electricity, industrial use of natural gas efficient, and time consuming. Ideally, it will be more effective was about 28% of the total domestic consumption in United and economic if methanation could be completed in an once- States. A study from the National Energy Technologies through entrained-flow gasifier. Technically, this idea is Laboratory (NETL) in 2007 researched on the feasibility of on- challenging because an effective gasification process is site gasifiers in industrial facilities for the production of SNG typically operated in a high-pressure and high-temperature found that many industrial sites could benefit from the use of condition, which is not favorable for methanation reaction, relatively small gasifier systems to either produce SNG or which is exothermic. To investigate this idea, a computational generate power, H2, or syngas. This is particularly attractive to model is established and a sensitivity study of methanation countries that don't produce NG domestically and have reactions with and without catalysts are conducted in this study. concerns on their national energy security. In modeling the methanation process in a gasifier, correct Several advantages are associated with producing SNG from information of the reaction rates is extremely important. Most coals for countries without NG resources. SNG can be of known methanation reaction rates are tightly linked to the produced through the gasification of coal and modern gas catalysts used. Since the non-catalytic reaction rates for cleanup system before used for combustion. In this approach, methanation are not known in a gasifer and the issues are SNG is able to substitute for natural gas, a more volatile compounded by the fact that inherent minerals in coal ashes can commodity than coal. In this way, gasification of coals to SNG also affect the methanation kinetics, modeling of methanation helps increase fuel diversity, protecting against an over-reliance in an entrained-flow gasifier becomes very challenging. on a single energy source, and making utilization of coals much Considering these issues, instead of trying to obtain the correct cleaner than the conventional coal burning scheme. Since SNG methnation reaction rate, this study attempts to use in use is identical to natural gas, SNG can be transported and computational model as a convenient tool to investigate the distributed using existing natural gas infrastructure and utilized sensitivity of methane production under a wide range in existing natural gas–fired power plants or devices such as methanation reaction rates with and without catalysts. From this industrial burners, boilers, kilns, etc. Furthermore, natural gas is sensitivity study, it can be learned that the concept of the fuel that powers most (but not quite all) chemical and implementing direct methanation in a once-through entrained- refining processes, and natural gas is the feedstock for flow gasifier may not be attractive due to competitions of other hydrogen production (for hydro-cracking, hydro-desulfurization, reactions in a high-temperature environment. The production of and ammonia) and syngas production (for methanol, and its SNG is limited to about 18% (vol) with catalytic reaction with a derivatives e.g. MTBE, formaldehyde, and acetic acid). Natural pre-exponential factor A in the order of 107. A further increase gas condensate (ethane and propane) is an advantaged raw of the value of A to 1011 doesn't result in more production of material via ethylene and propylene to much of the organic SNG. This SNG production limit could be caused by the high- chemicals industry (compared to crude-oil-derived naphtha). temperature and short residence time (3- 4 seconds) in the The biomass can also be used along with coal to produce entraind-flow gasifier. SNG. The use of biomass would reduce the greenhouse gas ------------------------------------------------------------- 1 * Xijia Lu is now affiliated with 8 Rivers Capital. emissions, as biomass is a carbon-neutral fuel. In addition, the 1.1 Coal-to-SNG Technology development of SNG technology would also enhance other Steam-oxygen gasification, hydrogasification, and catalytic gasification-based technologies such as hydrogen generation, steam gasification are the three gasification processes used in the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), or coal-to- coal-to-SNG technology. So far, the proven and liquid technologies, as the production of SNG is at least similar commercialized method of gasification for the coal-to-SNG to these other processes/technologies (Chandel and Williams, process is the steam-oxygen gasification process. A review of 2009 [1]). The addition of a water-gas shift reaction system and these processes is conducted below. methanation reactor to the base gasification and gas cleanup system, as illustrated in Fig.1, allows for the production of SNG 1.1.1 Steam-oxygen gasification that meets pipeline quality natural gas specifications. The In the steam‐oxygen process of converting coal to SNG, coal Reference Plant in Fig. 1 uses a sour-shift reaction to increase is gasified with steam and oxygen. Oxygen is used for partial- the hydrogen concentration in a portion of the syngas from the combustion with char to provide enough energy used for gasifier, so that when this gas stream is mixed with the gasification process. The gasification process produces carbon remainder of the syngas and is cleaned in the Rectisol® AGR monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane system, the cleaned syngas has the proper hydrogen to carbon (CH4), and higher hydrocarbons such as ethane (C2H6) and ratio (3:1) for methanation ( DOE report, 2007 [2]). propane (C3H8). The gas composition depends upon the gasifier's operating conditions, i.e., temperature and pressure. At higher temperatures and pressures, the major products are CO and H2. Three moles of H2 are required to react with each mole of CO to produce one mole of CH4. The concentration of H2 in syngas is increased by a step called the water‐gas shift reaction, which is followed by gas cleaning. The cleaned gas, consisting primarily of CO and H2, reacts in the methanation reactor in the presence of a catalyst to produce CH4 and H2O. The resulting gas, after H2O condensation and polishing, if required, is called synthetic natural gas (SNG). Figure 2 shows the flow diagram of the steam‐oxygen gasification process. The essential components of the process are the air separation unit, the gasifier, the water‐gas shift reactor, the syngas cleanup Figure 1 Sketch of Major Systems Comprising SNG Production system, and the methanation reactor. Reference Plant (DOE report, 2007 [2]) There are also many challenges associated with the deployment of SNG. In a 2007 DOE/NETL study [2], potential industrial customers of coal-to-SNG gasification for onsite use in NG applications indicated that reliability is important and needs to be near 100%, either through increased performance or redundancy. Some applications are able to also fire oil, allowing for onsite storage of the backup fuel. Availability is still a challenge for gasification, although some sites have Figure 2 The steam-oxygen gasification process diagram (Chen, L., et al., achieved very high availability. The Great Plains Synfuels Plant 2009 [3]) in Beulah, North Dakota, for example, has consistently produced 90- 92% of its rated output capacity [2]. The methanation reaction with catalysts which are mainly In United States, producing SNG from coal is more ruthenium, cobalt, nickel and iron can be described by expensive than producing natural gas through hydraulic CO + 3H2 CH4 + H2O (1) fracturing (fracking) process. For this reason, NETL focuses on As the methanation reactions are highly exothermic and locations and applications where the gasifier could be pressure-favorable, the methanation reactors are designed to run integrated with an industrial process that uses natural gas. This at low temperature and high pressure with catalysts. In the would improve plant economics and would guard the facility methanation reactor, CO and H are converted to CH and H O against fluctuating natural gas prices, because existing coal 2 4 2 in a fixed‐bed catalytic reactor. Since methanation is an transport infrastructure is well-developed, and coal is both exothermic reaction, the increase in temperature is controlled abundant and relatively inexpensive. Another challenge to coal- by recycling the product gas or by using a series of reactors. to-SNG is in transporting a gaseous fuel, which can be difficult Steam is added to the reaction to avoid coke formation in the because of the gases’ low densities. SNG must be cooled and reactor. After the steam is removed from the product gases by then compressed for transport through a close-to-capacity condensation, SNG is ready for commercial applications.